Such methods are routinely used to enable local area network users to communicate with the Internet network. These local area networks may be made available to a particular population, for example, such as hotel guests or passengers at an airport, and may be produced using a data packet transmission technology compatible with an Internet-type protocol, whether that technology be a cable technology such as the PLT (power line telecommunication) technology, for example, or a wireless technology such as that known to the person skilled in the art as the Wi-Fi technology, defined by the IEEE 802.11 standard, for example. These local area networks are increasingly widespread, deployed and used, because they complement or offer an alternative to wireless networks belonging to telecommunications operators such as GSM (Global System for Mobile communication) networks, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) networks, and UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) networks. These local area networks are also very simple to install and to configure, have minimum utilization costs, and offer perfect integration with the Internet Protocol (IP). This protocol is a benchmark for all forms of telecommunication using the Internet.
The present invention is linked to the following considerations, which are the result of work carried out by the inventors.
A local area network such as those described above usually offers a bandwidth that is shared between all the users of the network, with the implication that the available bandwidth may vary considerably from moment to moment, as a function of the volume of calls in progress at the time concerned, which volume depends among other things on the number of terminals connected to said network and the nature of the applications being executed in said terminals, i.e. the nature of the data being transmitted by or to the terminals. The volume of calls generated by downloading is much greater than that generated by merely visiting an Internet site or by a voice-only call. Likewise, the volume of calls generated by viewing an audiovisual program such as a cinematographic work is much greater than that generated by merely reading an electronic mail message.
Accordingly, the inventors have realized that in the event of overloading of the local area network caused by connecting too many users or by a disproportionate consumption of bandwidth by certain applications, said local area network can offer users only a degraded quality of service, the degraded service usually resulting from losses of data packets that are reflected in missing elements in the information transmitted or received by the users of the local area network when it is overloaded.